New school year brings increased traffic to soup kitchen
Activity at the local soup kitchen picks up when Central Michigan University students return to school in the fall.
The Isabella Community Soup Kitchen, 621 S. Adams St. is busy year-round, but the school year is when everything gets busier because of college students, said Lead Cook Monica Barrett.
“We’ve been pretty busy lately,” Barrett said.
Barrett has volunteered at the soup kitchen since 1996, working three days a week every year since. When her husband died, she said she needed something to do so she started volunteering.
Aside from students utilizing the kitchen to eat, they also play a large part in volunteering. Students have the opportunity to volunteer for credit, or to come in as they please.
“The percentage of students varies, but a lot of students help out during the school year,” Executive Director Genny Sobaski said.
Various organizations at CMU have groups will come in for an hour at a time, said kitchen coordinator Hal Langloys.
Langloys said the kitchen averages about ten volunteers a day, but some days as many as 20 volunteers come in.
"We have people come in here once a month, then we have people who have been here for years," Langloys said. “I’ve been here eight and a half years.”
One woman has volunteered for seventeen out the twenty years the kitchen has been open, but is incapable of coming in often due to her health, he said.
The soup kitchen averages about 8 to 12 people on a regular three hour shift. With a group that comes in, they are able to take three people for two shifts.
The soup kitchen is in need of any kind of food and will work with what is brought in. Right now people are bringing in garden vegetables, but later on the soup kitchen will need more fresh fruits, Barret said.
“We’re doing pretty good right now," she said. "Whatever kind of food you bring, we use.”
